Early radio broadcasting The Norwegian Telegraphy Administration stated working on a radio broadcasting in 1922. After consulting other countries, it recommended that the government own and operate the transmission infrastructure. Norway abolished the ban on listening to foreign radio without a permit in 1923. At the same time a permit became necessary to operate a transmitter. Financing of broadcasting was based on a combination of advertisements, license fees for owning a radio and fee on purchasing a radio. Several companies allied in 1922 for permits to operate radio channels. To avoid similar problems as had occurred in the United States, the administration tried to limited manufacturers of radios from also owning the channels. 's offices and first transmitter
Kringkastingsselskapet ("The Broadcasting Company") was granted the first permit in 1924. It had more than 2000 shareholders, with major parts owned by
Marconi Company,
Telefunken and
Western Electric. It had a permit to operate a transmitter in
Oslo with a reach of . It was owned by Kringkastingsselskapet, but operated by the Telegraphy Administration. An additional five transmitters were built in
Eastern Norway during the 1920s. These included
Rjukan in 1925,
Notodden and
Porsgrunn in 1926 and
Hamar and
Fredrikstad in 1927. Norway was allocated three
AM broadcasting frequencies in 1926. Other radio channels were established in
Bergen in 1925,
Tromsø in 1926 and
Ålesund in 1927. New transmitters were installed in
Kristiansand,
Stavanger,
Trondheim in 1930,
Bodø in 1931,
Narvik in 1934, and
Vigra in 1935. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation was established in 1933 as a government-owned, national broadcaster. NRK received the ownership of transmitter and studios, while the Telegraphy Administration was to be responsible for technical operations. The latter took over all responsibility for technical equipment at NRK from 1936, in an attempt to rationalize operations. However, it resulted in a reduced holistic control over NRK, and the arrangement was abandoned in 1950, when all technical aspects except transmission were transferred to NRK. A plan from 1930 called for a national network of 43 transmitter, which would be installed in three phases. The plans were by 1935 reduced to 19 transmitters. From 1933 to 1940, NRK invested 5 million
Norwegian krone in transmitters. Only one additional major transmitter, in Narvik, was completed. The strategy was in part caused by low growth estimates and prioritizing constructing a broadcasting center at Marienlyst in Oslo. As a countermeasure against what was at the time characterized as the "Finnish danger", and to reach out to the
Sami and
Kven population with Norwegian language and culture, a transmitter was established in
Vardø in 1934. Until 1935, programs from Oslo to other transmitters was conducted through a regular telephone line. Pre-made programs were tested distributed using
gramophone records in 1934, but the quality proved too low.
Shortwave radio transmission were tested the same year, but proved no higher quality. The following year the Telegraphy Administration introduced high frequency
transmission lines between Oslo and the radio transmitters. This was in part financed through a NOK 2-million grant from the state and NOK 230,000 in annual subscription fees. NRK protested the decision, citing that the Telegraphy Administration was dictating the conditions. The transmission lines were completed in 1937 and remained in use for 30 years. Their main downside was that they could not transmit in both directions simultaneously, which contributed to Oslo becoming the center of production. Only 110,000 of 538,000 confiscated radios were returned to their owners, resulting in a massive production of new radios. This and increased penetration resulted in NRK having very high income in the late 1940s and 1950s, allowing them to take high risk. This was in contrast to the Telegraphy Administration, which was highly restricted on funding and wished to minimize risk. By the early 1950s, 93 percent of the population had access to radio—twice the penetration of telephones. This was due to a higher political support in building broadcasting infrastructure combined with lower investment costs. In the late 1940s NRK used large resources in building a shortwave sender in Fredrikstad which could reach Norwegian abroad and especially seamen.
FM and monochrome television The period between 1945 and 1970 was dominated by a strategic disagreement between NRK and the Telegraphy Administration. In 1941, NS moved the responsibility for the technical part of programming to NRK. After the war there was initially consensus to reverse the decision, NRK started planning television broadcasts in 1950. It selected the internationally recommended
625 lines. Coaxial was tested with the construction of a line from Oslo which from completed to
Gjøvik in 1953 and to Bergen in 1957. The military opened a relay between Eastern Norway and Bergen in 1954 with 24 telephone lines. However, the Telegraphy Administration initially remained skeptical to the technology. The
Copenhagen Frequency Plan of 1948 resulted in Norway only being allocated one medium wave and one long wave frequency. The audio quality diminished as Norwegian transmitters were forced to share frequencies with foreign channels. This could be overcome by installing a network of
FM broadcasting transmitters. The Telegraphy Administration rejected FM, stating that this would require the entire country to buy new radios. A 1949 plan proposed a new long wave transmitter at
Kløfta and a national network of medium wave transmitters. NRK accepted the transmitter at Kløfta, but rejected the medium wave transmitters. As twenty percent of the population lacked acceptable radio coverage, NRK decided in 1953 to build FM transmitters in
Western Norway and
Agder to reach these areas. An advantage of building FM transmitters was that they could be co-located with television transmitters, reducing the roll-out costs. in
Oslo in 1961 NRK therefore proposed moving the long wave transmitter from Kløfta to Western Norway and build an FM network in Eastern Norway. Telegraphy Director
Sverre Rynning-Tønnesen stated that it was imperative to "cling to the past" and rejected this. By 1955 the Telegraphy proposed that the radio network be established using 26 FM transmitters. One on top of
Gaustatoppen would cover central Eastern Norway while the rest would be built in areas without acceptable AM coverage. Transmission to the FM transmitters would be carried out using telephone lines. Construction of the FM and television transmission network was estimated to take ten to fifteen years. NRK rejected the plan, both because of the long time frame and because they wanted to prioritize Eastern Norway and
Trøndelag, which had the most concentrated populations. The Telegraphy Administration also proposed that
cable radio be installed, in part because it would accelerate the construction of the telephone network. Cable radio was installed in
Setesdal,
Rana, and
Sulitjelma. Parliament decided in 1957 that a national television network should be built. The main concern was transmission lines to the terrestrial transmitters. Using telephone lines required 300 lines. Construction of a television network started with a
microwave radio relay in the
super high frequency band. The backbone of the system was a two-way 960 telephone channel, a one-way television channel network and additional communications lines in a third channel in Southern Norway. These lines could be rerouted if one of the relay stations fell out. It was supplemented with a redundant 300 telephone channel network. The relay network largely used the same masts as were used for television transmission, which was why the Telegraphy Administration was chosen instead of NRK. The 1957 plan called for seventy to eighty percent of the population having television coverage within twelve years. This was budgeted to cost NOK 70 million, consisting of 28 transmitters and 19
frequency converters. The FM network would be built in parallel, with 37 transmitters and 10 frequency converters. ,
Bergen The relay network opened between 1960 and 1968 and covered the segments Oslo–Bergen, the coast from Oslo via Kristiansund, Bergen, Stavanger and Ålesund to Trondheim, and from Oslo via Trondheim north to
Kirkenes. NRK had to its disposition four 15-kHz mono analog program channels. The government accelerated construction of transmitters in 1966, and by 1971 seventy-nine percent of the population had access to television coverage. In 1970 the network consisted of 39 main television transmitters and 266 smaller transmitters and frequency converters. The FM network consisted of 36 main transmitters and 126 smaller transmitters and frequency converters.
Color television and liberalization During the 1960s, NRK actively removed the color information on programs sent via the
European Broadcasting Union. This was abolished after order of the Ministry of Education and Church Affairs ahead of the
1968 Winter Olympics. The decision to start color broadcasting was taken by Parliament on 9 December 1970. The
1971 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was filmed in color, and while it sent to
Eurovision in color, it was broadcast domestically in monochrome. The first domestic color broadcast took place on 1 January 1972. NRK got its way, and a
transistor-based system with a capacity corresponding to 960 telephone lines was installed. The resulting system had two radio channels, one for transmitting radio from Oslo to the regional offices and one for transmission between the regional offices. The FM transmitters were fed their programs from the regional offices. The system had a two-way television channel, which could feed the television programs to the transmitters and allow for transfer of program content from the regional offices to Oslo.
Førde Municipality claimed
property taxes for the transmitter on Hafstadfjellet. The case ended in
Fjordane District Court, which found in 2005 that Norkring was not liable to pay property tax.
Digitization Norway was allocated DAB frequencies in 1995, allowing digital radio broadcasting to start. The frequencies were divided between a national multiplex, regional multiplexes and local multiplexes. Test broadcasting by NRK and P4 was carried out and NRK launched the world's first DAB-only radio channel,
NRK Alltid Klassisk. The following year the government stated that it was not the government's responsibility to build a digital radio broadcasting network and stated that this would have to be carried out by the radio channels. NRK, the
TV 2 Group and Telenor started in 2001 negotiating establishing a
digital terrestrial television network. Telenor withdrew and NRK and TV 2 established
Norges Televisjon in 2002. The government invited to a tender for a concession for a DVB-T network in 2002. Norkring estimated in 2003 that it would cost NOK 1 billion in investments over a period of 15 years to keep the analog television network running, which would limit transmission to four channels. NTV was the only applicant for the concession, but the tender was re-issued in 2005, after NTV wanted to extend its duration from 12 to 15 years. In the second tender, Telenor also applied. Thus the two companies agreed to collaborate and Telenor was invited as a joint owner of NTV, which in the end was the only applicant. Political support of the terrestrial digital television network was controversial. Opponents stated that the frequencies would be better applied to providing wireless broadband; however as most other countries use these frequencies for television, little consumer equipment would have support for such use. Proponents stated that a digital television network would be the easiest way to carry out the
digital television transition and that it would allow the population to receive NRK without having go have an agreement with a commercial company. The long political precessing time resulted in that
MPEG-4 could be used for compression, allowing for more channels and better quality, and that all home boxes can support
high definition. The first areas received DVB-T coverage in 2007. When the analog shut-down took place in late 2009, Norkring bought the Belgian Flemish national broadcaster
Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT)'s terrestrial broadcasting network in 2008. The purchase included one
multiplex, which was used to transmit VRT's channels. The following year Norkring België was awarded the right for four additional multiplexes, of which one is for
mobile television, and a digital radio license. The license was awarded following a beauty contest at the . The authority's main concern was to avoid
vertical integration which could hamper competition and it did not want an existing program company or operator of a cable or satellite distribution company to operate the terrestrial network. The other contender in the contest was the French
TDF Group.
Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV) operated Multiplex A (Mux A). The permit stipulated that Mux A would only be used for RTV's own channels and that commercial operators would have to use Mux B. Because Mux A became operational before Mux B, RTV was permitted to temporarily provide channels in their multiplex. Regular operations with Mux B started on 1 September 2010 and the
analog turn-off took place on 1 December. Initially
Pink SI was the only channel to switch to Mux B, although
TV3 followed in October. Pink SI switched back to Mux A in 2011, which also hosted the commercial channels
Pop TV and
Kanal A. Norkring issued a criminal complaint to the
Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of the Republic of Slovenia, claiming RTV was violating regulatory decisions through hosting commercial channels, arguing that European Union law prohibits commercial channels from being broadcast on national multiplexes. RTV stated that they were obliged to charge the commercial channels for the use of their multiplex. The Parliament of Norway decided in 2011 that the FM network would be closed in 2017 or 2019, with full coverage being ready in 2014. The only parliamentary party to oppose the transition was the
Progress Party. The decision resulted in a large-scale expansion of the DAB network in Norway. NRK stated that the longer overlap period, compared to that of television, would give significantly higher broadcasting costs. ==Network==